Why are They Called Book Worms?

I couldn't come up with a better title than that today. I just finished reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman and The Camera My Mother Gave Me by Susanna Kaysen. Now I started The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. Amanda suggested it when I was asking her questions about the Hmong community and their culture (Amanda and her husband Joel learned Hmong to preach in the ministry to Hmong). It's about a Hmong child with epilepsy and American doctors trying to help. I'm only barely into chapter one, so I don't have much to say.


I don't know what else to say, but apparently I wanted to say something.

Despite All My Rage, I am Still Just a Rat in a Cage

Last Saturday night Don & I cleaned out the rat cages. Smelly, smelly fun. Don dumps the litter and takes out the levels, then I wash the levels and bowls, refill the food and water and Don replaces them. Don quickly hopped on his game while I was washing. I was bringing the dried levels to the cage and what do I see? Pesto in the rat cage!!! The other night when we were playing Star Wars Pocket Models we had the rats in their carrier on the table. When we put them away, Pesto went in the carrier. Anyways, I called for Don to come QUICK so he could see Pesto (as I missed the carrier action the other time) and he got to see Pesto, and I got to grab my camera. I think this is adorable, but I am a proud furmommy. I LOVE the third picture, with the lick.

Lost & Found

Last Sunday night when I got home from work I was assaulted with the smell of cat pee/spray. I cleaned the boxes, and they were both really empty. So we figured Garlic was spraying again (he has yet to be declawed and neutered, our little Humpy One).

So last Monday I was realizing that I hadn't see Garlic since I was home. Then I realized I hadn't seen him the night before either, when I got home from work late. So I asked Don when the last time he saw Garlic was. He couldn't remember.

I started the hunt, panicked, remember poor Squishy's fate. You have to know, too, that Garlic is fairly shy and we think a little "off", and goes off by himself a lot (all my cats are house cats, so I'm referring to off in the house). I go downstairs and call his name and I hear him meowing plaintivly. I scream for Don to come down with me, cause I can't handle the thought of what I might find alone. I go by the washer/dryer/water softener/furnace area and hear him really clearly. I look behind the washer and dryer, I look IN the washer (the lid was up), I'm trying to figure out if he got in the furnace duct thingy, when I decide to open the dryer.

Pouring out of the bright light is the smell of poop and pee and a scared little kitty. He was up on one of those bar thingys...you know those things every foot or so in the dryer? The bottom was covered with fur, poop and pee. He wouldn't come to us for a couple hours, the poor guy was walking funny, and SMELLED bad! I cleaned up the dryer while bawling (Don's like, "Why are you crying? He's okay!") and then made a special treat for him so he'd come to me and I could try to pet, comfort and clean him. (All I did was mix a can of soft food with their dry food and gave some to each kitty-but they love it!) I wiped him down with baby wipes and he cleaned himself a lot, too.

A week later (almost) he still smells faintly of pee, the dryer is still holding on to a faint scent......

Oh, and we figure he was in there since Saturday, maybe Friday when Don finished washing the rats rags. I'm asuming that Garlic jumped in while Don was standing up with the basket and Don closed the door, thinking it was empty. I feel like an awful human being and an awful mama. It's just hard cause like I said, he'll go off into another place and be by himself a lot, whereas the other two tend to come see what we're up to.

He's doing fine now. Back to his normal self. But yeah, I need to figure out how to get that smell completely out of him!